Automated object detection and/or recognition (ODR) is a core facility enabling sophisticated treatment of raw data. Applications are varied, but illustrative examples include detection of physical objects (from simple geometric shapes through to geographic features, vehicles and faces) in raw static images or video, as well as detection of audio objects such as songs or voices in raw audio data. In some cases, detection (i.e., detection and/or recognition) is practically the whole application, in others, it is a small part of a much larger application.
A myriad of techniques have been developed for ODR, each with its advantages and disadvantages. However, a constant theme over time has been a demand for better efficiency as raw data sets grow ever larger. For example, it is desirable to recognize aspects of non-text media available in large public computer networks to facilitate non-text media search functionality, but it is not uncommon for corresponding raw data sets to contain items numbering in the billions. At such scales even small improvements in detection speed and accuracy can have large efficiency impacts, and it is desirable to know when a particular technique has been optimally configured in some respect.